diff --git a/.travis.yml b/.travis.yml
index 613d8ac..a207295 100644
--- a/.travis.yml
+++ b/.travis.yml
@@ -1,3 +1,5 @@
+# default 12.04 is ancient, use trusty instead
+dist: trusty
 # pretend we're building C
 language: c
 compiler:
@@ -8,5 +10,8 @@ before_install:
   - sudo add-apt-repository -y ppa:vala-team/ppa
   - sudo apt-get update -qq
   - sudo apt-get install -qq ${VALAC}
+  - sudo apt-get install -qq gir1.2-gee-0.8 libgee-0.8-dev
+  - sudo apt-get install -qq gir1.2-json-1.0 libjson-glib-dev
+  - sudo apt-get install -qq gir1.2-notify-0.7 libnotify-dev
 before_script:
   - autoreconf -if